Last Friday's industry rally at Tamworth canvassed most of the issues the general aviation public believe that the government agencies need to address. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester and CASA Chairman Jeff Boyd all responded to pointed questioning from the audience of around 150 people.
The issues that got the most attention were CASR Part 61 [licencing] and the ADS-B mandate that will apply to IFR aircraft from February next year. The following quotes are literally the tale of the tape.
Barnaby Joyce MP - Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the Nationals and MP for New England
I didn't come to this meeting because I didn't want to do anything. I arranged for the minister to be here ... so that we could do something, because we want to be doers and we want to achieve something. The place that we're all going to reside is in the future, so what we have now is a period of time ahead of us, and if we can work with you, then hopefully we can God-willing bring about an industry that takes some of the weight off your shoulders, lets you get back in the air, lets you make a buck and help this economy go a lot better.
Darren Chester - Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
The challenge as a minister, already as I walked around the room today and in other meetings, I get completely different views on a whole range of regulatory issues. I'm just letting you know that in discussions I've had with different parts of the industry I get different views. So it's not a matter of having a straight-forward united position on a whole range of individual issues.
I recognise there are issues with CASA. You'd have to be an idiot not to recognise that.
I'm someone who's actually relentlessly optimistic about the future. I don't accept that aviation in Australia is in a terminal decline and it can't be fixed, but we do have to work together to try and achieve that.
We've actually got someone in Jeff's position that is on your side. I know people are frustrated; there's 30 years of frustration. He's been in the job 10 months and ... Jeff is the bloke that's going to back you every day. He's the bloke that'll be on the phone to me putting forward very positive, very practical suggestions and solutions on how we get CASA working for general aviation. So, I'd just encourage you to worth with him as much as you possibly can. I think he's the best chance your industry's had for quite some time.
Jeff Boyd - Chairman of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority
This is my industry; it is my life, it is my passion and the only reason I took on the job as Chairman of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority board is to unpick the things that are causing the grievances to people in this room.
Part 61 is obviously a huge issue. It was a massive debacle. There is a large raft of exemptions that are in drafting at the moment ... that basically roll things back to the old CAR 5 regulations. Things like multiple instrument proficiency checks ... that will be rolled back, so under a group of aeroplanes, if you're a single pilot, turbo-prop or jet operated, you will do one instrument proficiency check. If you're a multi-crew pilot, then you'll do one multi-crew check per year regardless of how many different types of aircraft you will fly. It was a ridiculous impost to put on industry and it will be rolled-back in the next couple of weeks.
I know Mark [Skidmore] copped a hard time for holding the company line last night in Senate Estimates. I think he was a bit set-up there, which was unfortunate, because we had a conversation as recently as yesterday about what we can do to alleviate the problems of ADS-B being brought in. When I was chairman of the RAAA [Regional Aviation Association of Australia], I was one of the biggest protester of ADS-B. I think it's a stupid idea to bring it in three to four years ahead of the country that manufactures this kit. But, I came in afterwards and now I'm trying to unpick it. Things have happened; things are moving. Just rolling it [the February 2017 mandate] back doesn't work; it's impossible, it can't work.
There are people who are co-operative in the organisation [CASA]. You bring the case [for ADS-B exemption] to us, we'll look at the case, and providing we can make it work, we'll make it work. We're not in the business of putting people out of business ... I want to see this industry prosper.
You can't defend Part 61; it's a mess. We're trying to unpick that. There'll be a major Part 61 amendment that will basically be a new Part 61, which will come out at the end of the year, but in the meantime, to keep people out there doing what they should be doing, there are wide-ranging exemptions that will be out in the next couple of weeks. If they're not enough, come back to me and I'll make sure they [the regulation team] do more exemptions until we get into a position that you can operate your flying school as you should be able to.
SIDs are mandatory in the United States for anyone who's doing flying training or commercial activities; but it's not mandated for private operations. But on the SIDs for [Cessna] 100-series aircraft ... if you put together a plan with your engineer about how you're going to do it over the next couple of years, you'll be told you've got another couple of years to do SIDs on your [private] 100-series.
What I just intimated to the minister there is that we need to go back and speak to the other agencies involved in ADS-B. We'll go back and see how it effects other agencies and come back to you with what we can do.
Obviously the exemption that we thought would work for people is not going to work for people by the sound of it, so let's take it to another level.
Dick Smith - Aviation identity and former Chairman of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority
Jeff [Boyd], you've made the same error that I made when I was Chairman, and that is you've been told that this mandate is some requirement from Airservices, and in fact, the predecessor of Mark Skidmore, John McCormick, told the industry that in fact the particular mandate would not come in; he'd make sure it didn't come in because there was no safety reason for it. And Airservices wouldn't budge. Now, I've really studied this, I've really looked into it, I have a lot of inquiries with Airservices ... I've spent a lot of time with them and I really believe the only reason they're doing it is so some of their boffins can win an international award for being the first country to introduce ADS-B.
If it does come in in February, it will completely destroy the general aviation industry.